1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to flooring structures for use in animal husbandry.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Extruded aluminum floor structures for use in animal husbandry in areas such as farrowing pens, feeder pens, dairy stanchion areas, and other related areas are known. Such constructions normally provide a slotted floor surface spaced above a base floor surface with the slots allowing waste to pass through to an area from which it can be easily flushed. Oftentimes the extruded members are formed with support beams which can be directly rested upon the base floor, while in other installations the support beams will contact ledges or truss members positioned above the base floor only at the longitudinal ends of the extruded member whereby the extruded member bridges the base floor a significant distance thereabove.
Examples of such prior extruded or extrudable flooring systems can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,837,319, 3,742,911, 3,757,743, 3,722,473 and 3,804,067. While such patents show a number of different constructions, common among them is the provision of a number of inverted U-shaped cross section extruded floor members which are laid up to form a floor, the extruded members being transversely spaced apart from one another to provide longitudinally extending continuous drainage openings. The individual members are then attached together by individual connectors which index with adjacent extruded members or by single connector members which may connect a plurality of extruded members.
Other known flooring devices included plate devices with openings therethrough, see U.S. Pat. No. 3,307,520 and preformed concrete with individual slots, see U.S. Pat. No. 3,905,334.
The large size constructions, such as preformed concrete members and large plates, are extremely cumbersome to install and remove, and extremely expensive to ship. Additionally, in order to avoid abnormal weakening of such constructions, the drainage openings are either small and well spaced from one another, thereby reducing effective drainage, or are formed as continuous gaps between adjacent individual structures. In the latter event, the individual structures will either be very narrow in order to adequately space the openings for proper cleanup in which case an abnormally large number of individual floor units must be put in place, or, if the floor units are of a reasonable width, the openings will be spaced sufficiently far apart so as to reduce the cleanup effectiveness.
Although gratings have been known which provide greater width, and therefore required fewer members, they still require individual unit connectors. See U.S. Pat. No. 3,046,852.
Heretofore, there has been no economical, practical, system utilizing relatively wide longitudinally extending extruded members reducing the number of individual members to be assembled to comprise a floor structure while at the same time providing adequate drainage and ease of attachment and assemblage without reducing necessary strength.